Wow! What a commute on Wednesday. I ride a 20 mile route to work most days. Wed following a paved trail through the woods along the coast adjacent to water I came upon a black bear (probably a 2 year old). I've seen a few black bears along the trails in the city before so this was not that unusual.

This time, however, there was a group of walkers stopped by the bear from the other side. One walker managed to pass the bear while I was distracting it from the other side. The bear immediately started after the guy licking at his heels (literally)! The guy turns and tries to scare the bear back at the same time looking for a way out of his dilemma. Foolishly, I interjected myself into the situation to help the guy out using my bike as a noisemaker and additional distraction. As I scared the bear up into a small birch tree, out of the woods popped a cow moose and a new calf! She obviously had been the source of the bear's attention before we came along.

By now a few additional commuters and hikers were gathering on each side of the animals. This really upset the cow moose since she was now hemmed in on both sides by humans and the bear. Eventually I managed to get around the bear. The cow and calf moved off the trail as well. The rest of the crowd were either turning around or waiting for a chance to bypass the bear as I left the scene. This could have been a dangerous situation mostly from the moose. You don't want to get in the middle of a cow and calf especially with a pain in the ass adolescent black bear stirring the pot.

The humans eventually travel on only to leave the bear and moose to continue their dance. The next day I noticed bear crap on the trail about 3 miles up the trail. What a cool commute!

Yeah, not many people realize that moose are more dangerous than bears under some circumstances. I hope you called your local wildlife officers to let them know about the situation - they might want to close off the path for a few days for safety's sake. And for the love of little apples, take a different route yourself for a while!

This morning's paper has an article about the bear/moose incident. The perspective of the report is from the other side of the bear looking at me & others. The local fish & wildlife officer has posted signs everywhere and is looking for the bear which is acting abnormal. This bear actually tracked several other people through the woods. Be careful out there!